One thing that has been limiting these developments through time in equalizing people across the world is this physical nature of our trade mechanisms. And these, the objective paradigm of quantitative methods applied to addressing the normative and real-world opportunities on income and opportunity imbalances, but we are now entering into a new era where borders are digital. And people across the world can get involved with brands that they love, buy items that they love, and now evolving into digital items. It’s really extending this opportunity and destroying these, this idea that there’s a first world and a second world. I really think we’re going to see a change and from an economist’s perspective, I’m so excited to see how this is going to evolve as we enter into this new frontier.
[Off-camera]
Your academic career took you subsequently to Europe, correct?
[Evelyn]
Yeah, so during my undergraduate education, I studied abroad in Paris and really was motivated by this realization that there were different schools of thought and there was so much more to learn outside, and different ways to learn outside the US. And so, I was applying to grad school, um, there was a moment where I had to make the decision whether I would stay there or whether I would come back. I had amazing opportunities here at Stanford, at Yale, but ultimately, I chose to study at the London School of Economics because of the proximity and the recent history between the UK and the developing world. And this area was one where you can relate directly to countries across the globe and work on projects. And I actually had the very fortunate opportunity to spend time living in some of these nations, doing evaluation and research of these projects and really having a hands-on role in making a difference.
Unfortunately, my time in the international development community made me realize that it wasn’t enough and that what we were doing was not chosen by the countries that we were operating in, it was almost a sort of neo-colonialism in a way. And so, I quickly became disillusioned with that industry and decided that maybe, there was a way that I could discover through business itself to actually have a strong impact on the world.